Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Chiva Bus

Well today is one of my favorite days in Quito. At least it will be come 9 o´clock when Christopher arrives :) It´s really fun because everyone here is excited to meet him and everytime I turn around another person is like Su novio hoy!!!! loca.

One of my classes got canceled for tomorrow so I offically only have 1 more class here in Quito!!!! ..an 8 page paper and 2 exams. So, it´s getting closer every second. Come Monday at 1- if alll my prayers are answered-- I WILL BE OFFICIALLY GRADUATED!

Tomorrow we are taking a trip to Guayaquil and Riobamba- doing some touring by train. It's supposed to be really scenic- and it´s out of Quito with a little fresh air !!! Then next Tuesday it is off to the beaches and an amazing trip to Isla De la Plata ( the poor man´s Galapagos).

Yesterday our large group of exchange students went on a night tour of Quito in a Chiva Bus. Basically, it´s a bus with a bunch of benches in the back and then a big deck over top with a Live Band and a bunch of crazy tourists!! It was rediculously fun! They gave us little plastic whistles and we pretty much caused a scene all over the town. At one point we passed the President´s caravan entering into Old Quito. Yesterday was kind of a big day for him- apparently he took over the two largest t.v. stations in the country and there are some upset people ( i dont really understand cause i thought he broke up a monopoly and it was like a great thing! lol. ..language barrier...) Anyways, we all yelled and someone said he even waved at us out his window. I´m not sure- I was too busy yelling ¨One more term!!!¨¨ haha. Again, one of those things I think has all the humor in the world- especially since they are famous for kicking their President´s out of office here. But really other people just are like ¨ really? Who brought her?¨¨

We stopped in old Quito to change seating arrangements and played a ¨¨King and Queen of the Chiva¨¨ game in the courtyard of a big museum. My msu friend Ashley won the Queen- it was her 21st birthday:) Not quite as exciting in Ecuador seeing as they start drinking out of the womb here- but she loved it. Before the Chiva we went to our favorite place Crepes & Waffles and got some of the best ice cream ever!!! Have I mentioned the ice cream here? They have flavors you have never even thought of--- and lots of them!! My favorite is the frozen yogurt with fruta del bosque ( its like real blackberries and raspberries and you will die after one bite!)


The bus was funny cause we had random pedestrians try to jump on with us, cars were driving by and taking pictures of us and the police actually were our biggest fans honking everytime we passed!


I got all my sparty friends to sing the Fight song with me along with the beat of the random band...lol.! We got it on video tape:) Maybe it´s just me but I think it´s so cool to sing the fight song in random places around the world.We also took a big msu group pic in front of the museum with a few MSU shirts in there so we can try to get on the website!! GO GREEN!


Afterwards the bus dropped us off at the Mariscal-which is the party district and the main gathering for white people. They call it ¨gringo-landia¨ casually. We got in some good dancing at one of the clubs calle
d Tequila. It´s always a challenge for me to figure out as many ways as possible that I can avoid the creeper trying to teach me how to salsa. I tried the oh no thanks I´m dancing with my friends right now and when that didn´t work I would try to pawn them off on my friends claiming they were much better dancers than I. Then I got stuck because I was the shortest.....and the short little Ecuadorian man really needed a short partner. ugh. So, I tried to salsa it up as long as I could. He asked where I was from and If I had ever heard of Battle Creek. lol. Then he asked if I spoke spanish and the nice man even offered to help me practice. Long story short, that´s when I ran.




1 comment:

Murphy Kenzio said...

Dude, Shannon, you`ve should of pulled the "no speek English" or "no speek spanish" trick. Then if he didn`t believe you, make up some German or something like that.